Carrot Salad

About two month ago my family celebrated Alyssa's graduation with a luncheon at a Russian restaurant in Queens. Well, it is difficult to stop eating when all of the food in front of you looks so good.  But considering that you have all of your relatives around you, you also don't want to embarrass yourself by looking greedy and eating non-stop.  This is with one exception, I couldn't stop eating the carrot salad that was in front of me.  Seriously, it was like I had never eaten carrots before and I needed to catch up for all of the time I lost.  I think I ate enough to turn orange.

Now, it is not like I haven't tried this salad before.  I remember eating it in the past but somehow, this time around a new relationship was born.  Of course, I set out to replicate it when I got home.

I first tried to make the salad using carrots that were grated with a food processor.  While the taste was there, the texture just wasn't.  The carrots were too mushy when they needed to be like matchsticks. This is the salad with grated carrots.  It think that it does look pretty but the texture wasn't right. 

Of course, I didn't quit, I had to order a mandolin and try again.  This time the salad was perfect.  It is sweet from carrots and a little bit spicy from the garlic and the black pepper.  With the mandolin, I was able to cut the carrots so that they were thicker and more like sticks.  The carrots maintain their crispiness in this shape and give the proper texture to the salad.

Ingredients

1 pound of carrots, peeled
Juice of one lemon
4 large cloves of garlic
1/3 cup olive oil
Black pepper to taste

1.  Using a mandolin, cut the carrots into matchstick sized pieces.

2. Using a mandolin, slice the garlic cloves into thin pieces.

3. In a medium bowl, mix together the carrots, lemon, olive oil, garlic, and black pepper.  Adjust the ingredients to taste.

Enjoy!

~R